How to defeat Tanta Sila in Forspoken

Tanta Sila, one of the first major boss battles in Forspoken, is a powerful wielder of fire magic. Being the Tanta of strength and war, players will have to cross a vast and unforgiving wilderness to reach her palace. After making your way through her many fortresses, you will finally face Tanta Sila one-on-one in the game.

She boasts a series of deadly attacks that are spread across different phases of this Forspoken boss battle. Thankfully, she is far from impossible to defeat. Although she's a master of fire magic, she uses a melee style of combat. If you’re going to defeat Tanta Sila, you must be prepared for anything and should have several spells ready to deal with her.

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How to defeat Tanta Sila and claim her magic in Forspoken

Although Tanta Sila isn’t technically the first boss you fight in Forspoken, she is the first major challenge. The fight is a personal battle for Frey and involves a few phases.

While you can use whatever spells are most comfortable for you, the spells given below were the most effective for me:

Spells required to fight Tanta Sila

• Burst Shot (Attack)
• Scatter Shot (Attack)
• Disperse (Support)
• Tendril (Support)
• Bind (Support)

Any one of the necklaces listed below are solid options for fighting Tanta Sila. I used Shrift and Valorous for my gear loadout, but you can go with whatever defensive option works best for your playstyle.

Suggested equipment

• Shrift (Damage Boosted When Surge Magic not fully charged, Auto-Heal, Health +5%)
• Orison (Auto-Heal, Defense +5%, Health +5%)
• Valorous (Auto-Heal and Purple Magic +2%)

In Phase 1, Tanta Sila will likely open up with a slow barrage of fireballs. Considering that it's an enormous wave, you should parkour above the first one or dash around to avoid their shots. While dealing with this boss, it will be far easier to use Scatter Shot to deal continuous damage, but if you’re more comfortable with Burst Shot, you can use that instead.

Depending on how much Stamina you have in Forspoken, and how far you’ve progressed in your parkour skills, you can parkour off of several fireballs back-to-back and launch a counterattack by pressing R2.

Watch: Some of Phase 1's attacks

It should be noted that Tanta Sila will also release a few huge fireballs from the sky which cannot be parkoured off of. She generally follows up with three strikes using her fire blade. She lunges with each, and with the last hit, you’ll see a parkour notification (purple).

You should use your Disperse and Tendril whenever you can to deal additional damage as she continues to use lunging melee strikes with her fiery weapon. Alternatively, you can hide behind a pillar to avoid these fireballs, but I chose to simply dodge and parkour for this Forspoken boss battle.

When you reach around 75% of her Health, you’ll have time to Break her (Triangle) to set into motion Phase 2 of this Forspoken boss battle. At this point, Tanta Sila stops playing around and brings some of her statues to life. By now, you may have seen these shield-bearing soldiers several times.

Watch: Phase 2 begins

I used Burst Shot here, aiming at their feet to knock them up and over. This is a great time to use Bind and Tendril, dealing as much damage as possible. If you’re confident enough, you can simply avoid these enemies and continue dealing damage to the boss instead. Honestly, I’d personally finishthem off first.

As the soldiers spawn, Tanta Sila conjures a massive fireball that you must avoid while fighting them off. However, this Forspoken boss continues to use the attacks from the previous phase. She will continuously summon fire weapons to strike in this particular phase. All you have to do is defeat her guards and resume fighting Sila as normal.

After getting her to about 25% Health, the final phase of the Forspoken battle will begin. With a howl of anger and a mad cackle, Tanta Sila channels deadly fire magic. It blows the roof off of the battleground, which certainly doesn’t make things any easier. In this phase, she has some new tricks up her sleeve. She can now summon a wave of giant fireballs that you definitely need to avoid.

Watch: Phase 3 kicks off

For this part of the battle, her Health bar is completely refilled. While all of her attacks are greatly enhanced, her defenses are no better. You can continue to pelt her with rocks and avoid her new, annoying charging melee strikes.

Even at the end of this Forspoken battle, you can hit her with Bind to briefly hold her in place. The falling rock is now a group of rocks that fall all over the battlefield, leaving patches of fire that should be avoided. She will likely pair this with more huge fire orbs, making it an incredibly taxing experience.

In her final moments, she’ll engulf the ground with fire, leaving very little room to stand on. You must quickly find a pillar to jump onto and continue shooting at her until she’s defeated. Overcoming this Forspoken boss fight grants you Red Magic, which is this boss' fiery sword style. Victory also grants you the ability to grapple onto certain points on the map, a useful mechanic that the game will teach you about shortly after.